DON'T LIE TO THE BAND

Okay. I'll confess that I'm a little shocked to be the first reviewer of this excellent Canadian export. Admittedly, it took a considerable amount of effort to track down these albums in a listenable form - amazingly, both Dillinger's releases are available on iTunes for a little over 7 bucks a piece. Before continuing this review, I would like to urge any and all to go check them out. This band really, really deserves the attention.

All that being said, this really isn't heavy prog. Dillinger's first album was more overtly experimental, but neither sound anything like Rush to these sensitive ears. Dillinger actually maintain a very unique-yet-accessible sound, an erstwhile combination of jazz and rock that is very easy on the ears while remaining very challenging. They have a very classic eclectic prog sound - the production values are actually quite refined, with the drums in particular having a richness and fullness sometimes lost on more obscure releases. This doesn't sound like a hole-in-the-wall album recorded by an unknown band; on the contrary, the music is very competent and personal, with an evident refinement that makes me very, very surprised that their work isn't more well known.

The album opens with a couple of covers: Two Time Love by Spooky Tooth and a very, very funky version of The Beatles' Tax Man featuring a great talkbox solo. That being said, the album really gets going on Munchkin Men, the album's centerpiece. This is classic epic prog, with some great keyboard soloing and excellent intermittent guitar. The album's other true standout track is the marvelous Robot Race, although in truth there isn't a single song on this release that I dislike in the slightest. There's also some lovely atmospheric mellotron on Coming Home, reminding me why I love that instrument so much.

A great band, possessed of some great experimental chops. Investigate them for their very individual style, which really sounds like nothing else coming out of Canada at the time.